More
than sixty years have passed since the end of the second World
War, since the world would realize the devastation that befell the
Jews of Europe. They would eventually see the horrific
photographs that were taken in the Nazi concentration camps soon
after their liberation. They would be
forced to come face to face with the scope of the ruination of the Jewish population of Europe
and the realization that Jewish life there would never be the same.

What remained of the Jewish population that once numbered more
than nine million when Hitler first came into power in 1933, was
whittled down to less than a third of that number by the end of
the war. Though a very small percentage of the Jews who survived
the war decided to stay in Europe, many chose to emigrate, hoping
to start a new life in countries such as the United States, Israel
(then Palestine) and other countries throughout the world. The
Jews who did remain in Europe
were forced to live amidst the rubble of the destruction of their
towns. Many of their institutions, e.g. their town's synagogues and holy cemeteries, were leveled. Like so much of the
physical world that then surrounded them in post-war Europe, their
emotions and spirit were often shattered
as well. So many families were torn apart or
displaced. How could anyone
recover from such a traumatic event as the Holocaust and reconcile
their memories of the war, the destruction of their towns and communities,
their way of life, and the senseless loss of
so many family members and friends at the hands of the Nazi beasts?

How would the survivors of the Holocaust remember what had
occurred? Surely they could never forget-- such horrors become
forever etched in one's memory. Where could they possibly reestablish their communities
and begin anew? Certainly not in the
areas of devastation. For the Jews who chose to remain in Europe
after the war, who returned to the town they once lived in, their survival was not always secured. Most Jews
decided to rebuild their lives elsewhere. It would not be until
many years later that
many of them would return to visit the countries in which they once
lived. So many others swore that they would never return to the countries of their
birth. The ones who did return would find that, for the most part, few if any Jews remained;
the
synagogues, the Jewish schools, the other institutions that were
once so much an integral part of their community and way of life were
gone.
The homes they once lived in were occupied by others; the building
that once housed their beloved synagogue was being used for a different
purpose or lay in ruin. Many Jewish cemeteries were either
destroyed during the war or vandalized. Their matzevot
(gravestones) were toppled; many had been removed and used as
paving stones for floors or roads.

In the early thirties, before the war, the countries of Europe had very large Jewish populations. Many Jewish families resided in small
towns or shtetls and lived their lives apart from the general
population, according to Jewish law and traditions.
They often made up a large percentage of a town's population and
were important to the community. They
were merchants who sold from the pushcart during market day, or
may have greeted their customers from a store
within the
town square. They were also tailors, cobblers, teachers, students of the
Torah, religious men. They were our zaidas, bobes, yiddische mames
and tates, mumes, feters, shvesters and bruders--our mishpacha.

This exhibition is dedicated to all those who perished in the Holocaust.
Each of the memorials on display here was erected
in Europe since the end of World War II. They are
especially unique when compared to those in other countries such
as the United States. The memorials of
Europe were often built in the areas where the actual
devastation, the mass killings took place; those in the United States were generally
built by survivors or their first generation who at the time lived
in relative safety thousands of miles away.
Many of the European memorials were commissioned and paid
for by local town governments, others by Holocaust survivors, some
by both. The memorials in the United States were paid for my
landsleit, members of a particular society that was formed by
immigrants who came from a particular town in Europe.

Particularly in Eastern Europe, relatively few Jews remained
after the war, so these
memorials today are mostly seen by those of us who choose to visit them, or
by those who aren't Jewish. They are situated in
countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and the Ukraine,
Latvia, Hungary, Germany and Romania. For many of us, there are questions
to be pondered. In the absence of a
recognizable
Jewish population in their town, and considering the possibility
that they have never met a Jewish person before, how
are those now living in these towns affected by such symbolic
sites? How do these monuments remind them of the horrors of World
War II?
Does the presence of these memorials motivate
them to think more deeply about what had transpired during the war, and do
they bereave and mourn for all
the Jews who were lost in such insanity? Do they decry the
horrors of war and genocide and begin to wish and work for a more
peaceful world?

It seems that many living in Eastern European countries today, who
had always believed that they were Christian,
are now discovering that they were born to Jewish parents and given to a Christian neighbor
during the war so that they would not be killed. Others realize that
Jews have contributed a great deal to their culture, and that the
loss of so many has seemed to delete this contribution, leaving a
gap in the
history of their own town or country. One can only hope that the world
will be a more peaceful place, and that these many memorials to
those who perished in the Holocaust will be a constant reminder to
all of us of the deleterious effects of intolerance, prejudice
and war.